Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has criticised Presid...
Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has criticised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s latest plan to work with state governors to reduce public transport fares, describing it as a belated response to the worsening cost-of-living crisis.
Atiku, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said Nigerians needed cheaper fuel and broader economic relief rather than what he described as last-minute promises on transport fares.
The criticism followed President Tinubu’s announcement that the Federal Government and state governments would work together to reduce transportation costs, with a focus on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and other cheaper energy sources. Tinubu also directed the rollout of an additional 500 CNG refuelling stations, bringing the planned number under the government’s programme to 1,000 nationwide.
According to Atiku, the government’s reported conversion of more than 120,000 vehicles to CNG in over three years was evidence of what he described as policy failure.
“If Tinubu’s grand strategy for cushioning the consequences of his reckless and poorly thought-out subsidy removal is CNG conversion, then the admission that only about 120,000 vehicles have been converted in more than three years is not an achievement. It is an advertisement of policy failure,” he said.
Atiku noted that against widely cited estimates of about 14 million vehicles on Nigerian roads, the 120,000 conversions represented less than one per cent.
“That is the government’s own number. That is Tinubu marking his own examination script,” he said.
He argued that the figure did not justify presenting the CNG programme as a major achievement, insisting that Nigerians were still struggling with high transportation, food and energy costs.
The former vice president also faulted Tinubu’s position that cheaper fuel should translate into cheaper transport fares, saying the statement amounted to an admission that the administration’s energy policy had failed to address the purchasing-power crisis confronting Nigerians.
Atiku accused the Federal Government of removing petrol subsidy without putting in place what he described as a credible cushioning framework, alleging that the decision contributed to increases in transportation and food prices while placing additional pressure on businesses and households.
He further argued that the administration’s renewed emphasis on cheaper transportation was coming at a politically sensitive period ahead of the 2027 general elections.
“Now that elections are approaching, and Nigerians are rallying behind Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s proposal for a production-based subsidy to immediately tackle the cost-of-living crisis created by Tinubu, the same government that ridiculed and criticised Atiku’s plan has suddenly discovered that Nigerians need cheaper transportation,” he said.
“This is medicine after death. You cannot break a man’s leg, abandon him in pain for three and a half years, then return with crutches and demand applause for compassion. Tinubu created the transport crisis; CNG cannot now be packaged as heroism.”
Atiku acknowledged that CNG could reduce the operating cost of converted vehicles but maintained that it could not, on its own, resolve the wider economic difficulties facing Nigerians.
“CNG can make a converted bus cheaper to operate. It cannot make a poor Nigerian richer,” he said.
He said the distinction was important because many Nigerians were travelling less because of high fares, while workers, traders, students and farmers were struggling to cope with rising transportation costs.
“So what exactly has Tinubu solved if the bus becomes cheaper to operate but the passenger has become too poor to enter it? A cheaper bus without an affordable passenger is not economic recovery,” Atiku said.
The ADC presidential candidate also criticised the government’s plan for Nigerians to begin benefiting from lower transport fares from October 1.
He said Nigerians were already facing the consequences of high transport and food prices and questioned why relief should be delayed.
“Nigerians are hungry today. Transport is expensive today. Food is expensive today. Businesses are dying today. Why must relief arrive by appointment?” he asked.
Atiku said the deeper challenge was Nigeria’s loss of purchasing power, arguing that reducing the cost of fuel for buses would not necessarily make transportation affordable for passengers whose incomes had failed to keep pace with rising living costs.
“You cannot solve a purchasing-power crisis simply by changing the fuel inside a bus,” he said.
According to him, what mattered to workers and households was whether their incomes could cover transportation, food, rent, medicine, school fees and other basic needs.
“When fuel rises, transport rises. When transport rises, food rises. When food rises, the household shrinks. That is the economic chain Tinubu broke, and that is the chain Atiku intends to repair,” he said.
The former vice president proposed what he described as a targeted, transparent and fiscally capped fuel subsidy linked to domestic production.
He said such an intervention should be designed to benefit struggling Nigerians rather than wealthy individuals, multinational companies or politically connected intermediaries.
“Fuel subsidy must return for struggling Nigerians, not the rich friends of the President and multinational companies but a targeted production intervention that is transparently budgeted, independently audited and guarantees that the benefit reaches consumers,” Atiku said.
He also pledged that an administration led by him would support domestic refining, track petroleum production, cap costs and reduce energy expenses.
He said the objective would be to ensure that the benefits of such policies reached commuters, farmers, workers, traders and small business owners.
“That is the difference between Tinubu and Atiku: Tinubu manufactures hardship and distributes palliatives. Atiku will attack hardship at its source,” he said.
President Tinubu had earlier said more than 120,000 vehicles had been converted to CNG nationwide, with more than 100,000 additional conversion kits in the works. He said CNG-powered vehicles could spend between 60 and 80 per cent less on fuel than petrol-powered vehicles and expressed the goal of translating those savings into lower transport fares from October 1.
The President’s latest CNG expansion is therefore at the centre of an emerging political argument over how best to reduce transportation costs and address the wider cost-of-living crisis ahead of the 2027 elections.
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